I first visited Oranienplatz on a cold wintry night, at the end of November 2013, and saw several people bring blankets and clothes to a table. Although there were slogans written around the information table, such as âBreak Isolationâ, âRefugee Strike Berlinâ, and âKein Mensch ist Illegalâ (No Human is Illegal), I was particularly drawn to the slogan âWe are here because you destroyed our countries.â This was the very first time that I had observed a connection made in explicit ways between colonialism, neo-colonialism, and migration outside of left-wing academic circles. I immediately sensed that these protests were influenced by leftist politics and extended well beyond providing humanitarian support to refugees. After getting acquainted with some of the people involved in the resistance at Oranienplatz, I acquired knowledge of the EU and German asylum policies and decided to focus my research in this direction. Furthermore, I had met a number of people with whom I felt at ease and developed friendships, which was another reason I continued to return to Berlin.
At that time, there was not much discussion of refugee activism in Germany in the mainstream media or scholarship. However, in 2015 and 2016, a wealth of scholarship emerged and refugees became the focus of much media attention during the so-called refugee crisis. Since the euphoria of the short-lived âWelcome Cultureâ in 2015 in the German state, the attitude towards refugees has altered considerably (see JĂ€ckle and König 2017; Bhimji 2019). Similarly, scholarly and media attention have dimmed. Yet, the need for a focus on the ontologies of refugees is paramount. In recent times, there has been a rise in the far-right populist movements, anti-immigrant sentiments, and the normalisation of white nationalism, with far right-wing political parties in Europe making substantial gains. Since then there has been a contagion effect, which has resulted in a xenophobic and racist attitude towards refugees and migrants as well as physical attacks in the areas in which they reside. More significantly, current migration policy in the EU has resulted in the externalisation of the EU borders, and contributed to deaths in the Mediterranean. Even if they are fortunate enough to reach their country of destination, refugees are excluded from participation in the civic and social life in Europe since they are often isolated in sub-standard and far-flung accommodation. Despite this negative climate, cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, and London have also witnessed an increase in solidarity efforts, protests, and media and theatre activism, which call for and demand an open border policy. This book examines the refugee protests which began in Berlin in 2012 and continued as several solidarity and media groups emerged during the mobilisation.
The refugee movement which began in 2012 in Germany received limited scholarly attention, and the solidarity and self-organised refugee resistance groups which emerged from this mobilisation and continue to function warrant scholarly attention because of their employment of different and creative strategies, political and humanitarian ideals, and their long-term sustainment. The groups which I discuss in this book began during the protests of 2012 or shortly after and have continued to mobilise, protest, and sustain themselves to this date, that is, for a period of five to seven years, despite the increasingly hostile feelings towards refugees.
This study stems from the resistance that has been occurring in Germany since 2012 at a square called Oranienplatz in the district of Kreuzberg in Berlin, and from thereon I discuss the workings of three different grassroots initiatives which emerged from this movement. The book focuses on the ways in which the groups continue to fight against border regimes and the racial exclusion of refugees. In doing so, the bookâs aim is to examine how solidarity movements and refugee self-organised resistance work within Germany challenge the culture of border regimes, employing different strategies in an environment of hate, racism, and perpetual fear of detention and deportation. In this respect, I examine how refugeesâ self-mobilisation through tent protests and subsequently via the media, and challenge some of the demonising discourses which perpetually criminalise them. The study also examines some of the solidarity groups which emerged from the refugee movement and the relational dynamics which operate when solidarity workers and citizens support and âhelpâ refugees, and the power relations which tend to persist in such situations.
Aims of the Book
This book has several aims. Based on empirical data and ethnographic methodology, I first demonstrate the ways in which refugee activism and solidarity efforts go beyond citizenship such that their activism includes fights against racialisation of refugees, and state power. The book discusses the asylum policies and the German stateâs practices which exclude, ostracise and limit membership of refugees in the nation-state. In this respect, the policies which racialise refugees and the related institutional violence which refugees are compelled to live with are discussed in detail and the subsequent chapters demonstrate how refugee initiatives fight such forms of state power and racial ostracisms.
The bookâs second aim is to demonstrate that activism and solidarity work can take on many forms. The book demonstrates the diverse politics and strategies which different activist groups employ in order to expose and overcome asylum policies which serve to govern the racialised Other through migration controls (GutiĂ©rrez RodrĂguez 2018). To this end, following a brief discussion of the refugee tent protests in Berlin, this study provides an analysis of three forms of activism (which continued following the mobilisation): solidarity activism, intersectional feminist activism, in which women advocate for women refugees suffering from multiple forms of marginalisation, and refugee self-organised media activism. In particular, the book examines the different strategies employed by three different initiatives, Schlafplatzorga, International Womenâs Space, and Wearebornfree Empowerment Radio, and describes and critiques the differing strategies they employ to challenge asylum policies and racist ideologies. The book shows that political activism does not cease with street protests, as has been demonstrated in the case of social media in recent times. It thus demonstrates how fights against border regimes, racialisation of refugees, colonialism, capitalism, and neocolonialism can occur in diverse ways, such as through the media, through organising conferences, cooking and eating together, seeking refuge in Berlin, and leaving the âLagerâ (segregated mass refugee accommodations) when in dire circumstances, offering oneâs room to homeless refugees threatened by deportation, and by finding funds to carry the activism efforts forward.
The third aim of this book goes beyond a description of unequal structure and agency and examines the interplay of the humanitarian and the political, questions of reciprocity, and representational tropes of refugees within these initiatives. Even though the groups which I discuss in this book were born out of radical left politics in Berlin and were engaged in anti-racist struggles, humanitarian values and politics came to interact in the initiatives such that they posed ethical dilemmas even for the participants. This study shows how some of these solidarity actions affected slippages between humanitarian and political action. Thus, this empirical research shows how, because of humanitarian interventions, solidarity activism and feminist and intersectional activisms did not always lead to equality, between refugees and solidarity works; and for the members of the groups it became challenging to participate in solidarity work in prefigurative ways. The study demonstrates the differences between larger humanitarian systems (Fassin 2012; Ticktin 2011; Agier 2011), which tend to become part of border regimes, and smaller initiatives that remain local and independent (Fekete 2016).
Finally, the book aims to draw attention to refugee activism and refugees from countries other than Syria. Since the so-called refugee crisis of 2015, there has been much scholarly and media attention focused on refugees arriving from Syria. This book demonstrates some of the experiences, struggles, and activism of the âless deserving refugeesâ and perpetually racialised people who came from Sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to Germany prior to 2015, and who continue to arrive to this date, assuming they survive their treacherous journey.
Contentious Politics, Solidarity, and Humanitarianism
Border regimes and exclusionary asylum policies which gave rise to internal and external borders and fortresses, the threat and the actual drowning of bodies in the Mediterranean, and the presence of refugee camps and accommodations have led in recent years to the formation of an industry of humanitarian aid and government, volunteerism, solidarity, activism and protests, as well as refugee self-organised and self-led activism. To this end, scholars have provided an analysis of refugee activism, solidarity, and volunteerisms and humanitarian aid in much depth.
Refugee Activism
There has been much focus in scholarship on refugee activism, citizenship, and migration. Refugee mobilisations have been understood to take on a variety of forms, such as marches, rallies, protests, hunger strikes, occupations of space, squatting, anti-deportation and detention actions, solidarity acts with refugees, and demands for a just and fair asylum policy (e.g. Ataç et al. 2016; Rygiel 2011; Bhimji 2016; Chimienti and Solomos 2011). These actions are generally targeted against the state, and refugee activism has been understood as a political force in its own right (Tyler and Marciniak 2013; Rosenberger et al. 2018).
Through a focus on refugee mobilisation, these studies demonstrate the political agency, citizenship, and membership of refugees within a polity. They further contend that refugees and their support networks participate in contentious politics, which constitute âconcerted, counter-hegemonic social and political action, in which differently positioned participants come together to challenge dominant systems of authority, in order to promote and enact alternative imaginariesâ (Leitner et al. [2008] p. 157, cited in Ataç et al. 2016).
There has also been an increasing focus on mobilisation self-organised by refugees, particularly in Germany, leading to their visibility and awareness of their rights and political ...